Theresa's Doing Great

Theresa is doing great! She's began using her computer correctly, answering questions it asks her with the keyboard. She's reading and doing all sorts of things. There are days when I wonder if her ABA therapist is actually aware of what she can do or if she's getting so caught up in the curriculum they use that she's missing things. I wonder if I'm missing things trying to make sure she can do what the curriculum they use requires. Funny thing is none of the curriculum they use is used in the schools here unless you take it to them yourself.

I don't particularly care for the ABA curriculum itself but it works. I just think that there are somethings more important than being able to put a puzzle together. Despite the things I don't care for in the Ables together with everything else it works so until I find something else we'll stick with it. I do wish we could find time to sit back down with the therapists and go over the goals I find important though. I have to finish up this project, go back to writing my own work and make an appointment. There are some skills I would prefer to skip to since they take so long to get consistent results.

Amazing to See Visible Progress

Theresa may not be cooperating to potty train all the time but what she is doing is amazing. I bought her a computer some time back, one of those kid computers with a few dozen choices of what to do. Well, lately she's been doing "Find the missing letter" and amazingly enough even with her resistance to communicate she's finding them about 80% of the time. When one comes up she doesn't know she either finds a flash card with the word so she can fill in the letter or turns the small device on and off until it gets to one she knows. So far this week she's played "Duck, duck, goose" (understood the game) and "musical chairs"although she didn't associate the music with the chairs she had fun.

Preschool starts back Monday. So Monday and Wednesday mornings I'll be without my baby. Guess I have a choice either work those for hours or use it to clean up what she's just gonna mess up again when she gets home. She'll have two speech sessions and one OT at the preschool. Then outside of preschool she'll get one 45 minute OT, one 2 hour ABA and five 30 minute speech sessions each week. It's time to go through her toys and get out the ones she's outgrown and start using the ones she's just learned how to use.

I still have to print out some individual pages for her to color, imitate, ect.... with but she's not cooperating to show me which ones she needs the most so I guess I'll just guess at it until she can vocalize that a little better. When schools starts back it'll be easier, I'll be able to take what she has to do in class and use it as a guide.

Well, it's awfully late after such a long day so I'll be calling it a night soon.

Theresa Got a Hair cut

Theresa got a hair cut because after endless hours of combing and a small fortune spent on shampoo, conditioner and sprays to take tangles out the knots that had appeared in her hair refused to come out. So she got her first hair cut. It's adorable because she's adorable but her precious curls are gone forever I'm afraid.

Appreciating the Small Things

September 9, 2009 Theresa had her first speech evaluation. At that time she tested at a 9 month old communication level. I asked for a reevaluation and it was done yesterday. We compared the results, she ended up at a level of 1 1/2 years of age. Not great but it's a good deal of progress all things considered. I'll take it happily. There are somethings that she has to relearn since she lost them when she moved on to other things. A few worksheets and some more interacting activities to reach those goals.

The preschool starts back the 19th of August. I still don't know what class Theresa is going to be in. I just know that it's a half day two days a week either mornings or afternoons. The most the kids go is four half days and most of them don't get more than two. Theresa needs four days, I have a feeling I'm going to have to come up with the funds for a preschool that teaches the other days of the week. I can't afford it, even the tax deduction isn't worth it. Maybe a part-time day care but she's not ready yet.

I have a feeling unless I can afford a private school, private tutors and all that before she starts school I'm gonna have to move far away. Homeschooling is made more difficult here than in other states. She's have to be enrolled in a Church school or have a private tutor. Hopefully by the time she begins kindergarten they'll be an Educational facility that meets our needs at the Autism Center. They've increased the number of therapists slowly but surely.

Theresa went poop in the potty today, then not two minutes later she wet her pants. On the bright side she tried not to and even asked for the bathroom when she did it. Mommy has to get a little faster if we're gonna keep accidents from happening. She's willing to try.

Four hours of today alone were spent trying to get the knots out of her hair. She's still got a head full of knots but it's not as bad as it was. I'm hoping that one more two hour session will finish getting the knots out of her hair. I refuse to cut it because of this.

Well, I need to get a little bit of work done. I want to move but I need to save some money to do it.

Long Day

It's been a rather long day. Tired as I can be we still have three days of therapy to go. Theresa is handling it well though. She is still as energetic as she was over the weekend. Funny we went shopping this weekend and she was a little angel.

Monday Theresa was a little terror. I got my wish though, she was just like any other child her age for that one day. No one would have any clue that she has difficulty even playing like other kids do because the concept of pretend is rather difficult for her. She was good when we went to speech however.

Today (Tuesday) we had speech and she was really good. She gets most of her action cards right now but she keeps missing a few consistently. Catch is a big one she misses, she still hasn't got the concept of catching in real life so the picture is rather difficult for her too. She knows what a ball is, she can throw a ball but if you tell her to catch she just lets it go past her.

She's talking more. I spoke to her speech therapist today and she's going to begin retesting her tomorrow. I'm curious to see how far she's come. Either the end of this month or September will be a year since she began speech. I think she had three words and an echo or two. "Call now" and "advair" were the echos that she said constantly. I want to see just how much difference a year has made.